One Of The Easiest Ways To Create Powerful Video Content For Your Blog

I’ve just recorded a simple instructional video for you showing you one of the easiest ways ever for creating powerful content for your blog.

Today’s blog post comes in two parts:

The first part shows you how to set up an “interview” like scenario for creating interesting video content for your blog.

And the second part shows you the end result.

After watching both these videos, you’ll realize how easy it could be for you to create similar videos for your own blog that your audience will just LOVE!

The Behind The Scenes Video Of How I Did It

The End Result Of My “Interview” Like Video

Transcript Of Today’s Video

Hi there. Gideon Shalwick here. A few weeks ago I got an email from a friend asking me for an email interview. If you don’t know what this is, this person asked me to answer a bunch of email questions with email. He wanted me to reply back with some text.

I enjoy writing but I enjoy speaking and being in front of a camera more. I find that it is easier for me to create content using a camera and talking to you “face to face”. I figured, what the heck, I’m not going to write anything back, I’m going to create a video about it and turn it into an interview. So, acting like it is an interview so it looks like the person is actually interviewing me live but in fact it was just me sitting there in front of the camera!

I want to show you the set up I have for that so you can do it too because I think it is a really easy way of creating blog content really fast and getting some really good content out there at the same time.

Here’s what I did…

I had the questions from my friend on my laptop just in front of me. I was sitting on the chair in front of my laptop so I could see the questions on my screen all the time. Then I had a light at about a 45 degree angle to my face. I had the camera just in front of the light at the same height as my face was when I was sitting down.

This is the approximate positions I used for the light and the camera. If you are sitting in a well lit room you probably don’t need an extra light, depending on how good your camera is. I decided to use one of these fancy lights to make it look a little bit better and I was recording at night so I actually needed the light.

The other thing I did was, instead of looking at the camera while I was recording (because then it is obvious that no one is interviewing you) I looked at another place directly in front of me. I looked 45 degrees to the direction the camera was pointing in – another place in the kitchen, the fridge, while I was talking and acting like I was speaking to the person interviewing me. On the camera it looked like there was someone else sitting directly in front of me, interviewing me. But I was in fact sitting there looking at my fridge!

Something I did that helped a lot was to put a picture of someone that I could focus on in front of me so that it looked like I was speaking to someone else. You could do something similar. That’s a really cool tip, you could put a picture of someone’s face there so that it brings your interview to life and it makes it come across a lot more real. You’ll see in the interview that I had in the other video with Louis how that comes across…

I start off that video with an introduction using a splash screen with some text and then I get straight into the first question. So instead of Louis asking me the questions live I have the questions as text. Everyone else assumes the other person, in this case Louis, is sitting opposite me asking me the questions and I’m just answering. But, in fact it’s just me looking at the screen at the questions.

I wanted to share this technique with you as a really cool and easy way of creating content for your blog. You don’t need someone else to ask you these questions. You can come up with a bunch of questions yourself.

If you are going to be putting your video on YouTube, keep it brief. Probably just three or four questions. Try to keep your video between three to five minutes. That way, your videos are the most powerful and most likely to go viral. The interview I did was a bit longer but I had to answer those questions but you don’t have to. You can do less questions about a certain topic of your niche. Maybe the top five questions that you get asked in your niche. Or, whatever it is your audience is interested in.

You can write those questions down and have them in front of you and then just hit record. Afterward you do your editing and upload it to YouTube and send it to your list or put it on your blog and make it come across really interesting. The other thing about interviews is they are more interesting than you just speaking directly to the camera like I’m doing now. Having a bit of variation is a good idea.

This technique is something I’ve done a few times now. It’s really easy and as you can see, it gives you a pretty good result and it makes you come across a lot more like an expert as well.

About Gideon Shalwick

Gideon Shalwick is a YouTube and video marketing expert, and has figured out how to get a TON of attention using online video (with one YouTube channel reaching 10 million views!), and today, he's built a following of over 100,000 people for his business ventures, and 60,000+ people on this very blog, where he shares some of his most powerful video marketing strategies.

Interesting post Gideon, Video marketing is something that I have not really gotten into yet but 2010 is the year that I explore it. This post gives interesting insight and has awaken my creative mind.

I enjoyed your video. You warmed up more towards the end. You are right videos do help along with social marketing You Tube is a good one. I have taken a different tact from blogging. I have built a few websites. Perhaps, I will still find time for blogging as Google does give a high rate for good content.

Gideon,
Very clever how you did this. I had watched the second video the other day, and now, seeing this most recent video with your “behind-the-scenes” explanation, most of my questions have been answered.
I especially liked how you broke things up a bit with “fade-outs” and also changed at times to “close-up” shots. Is there a simple explanation for how you did the close-up effect?
Roger

You’re definitely right – it does ease the nerves a lot since you don’t actually have to look at the silly old camera. That thing seems to freak a lot of people out once the red recording light goes on!

Gideon you rocked again. Thanks for such awsome information. Its really nice that you have provided such an vital info. with most of the useful tips. I have one querey regarding the sites which are promoting selling products. Could you provide some required info for promoting products ?

Thanks for sharing your interview tip, I will be trying it soon. After many unforeseen obstacles, I finally got my blogsite up. Video is my passion, and I will use it to the max by the end of this year, once more things start happening. Am happy that I set up my own website, and have 2 videos on top of homepage all the time. Tom.

Yeah that’s a great idea! Actually I’ve seen someone do it before and it seemed to work pretty well. The only thing that was kinda weird was the “non-interaction” between the two people cos it was not in real time. But otherwise a neat idea!

Hi,
Really enjoyed your relaxed approach to what I believe is a little stumbling block for most people, being able to present themselves in an understandable manner- live on video. The populus should take note of how you showed that to be comfortable with yourself is key to a quality presentation, also to plan and structure exactly what it is that you would like to convey.
Thoroughly enjoyed these tasters and looking forward to your further works.

Yeah it does take some practice just to become “one’s self” while in front of a camera. I must say I’m still working on it and making sure that I stay true to myself, as apposed to be someone that the “conditioned” world might expect.

Love your content. I started my blog somewhere in oktober last year. Put some content on in, with video’s and already got an audience of about 3500 people.
It’s all in Dutch, so you probably won’t understand a word I’m saying…

This year I want to do some video’s about cooking. But I don’t know where to start. My kitchen is quit small and the camara is then always positioned sideways. I really could need some help with this.
Should I use shots of the food I’m preparing or how to cut veggies… Or just shoot the video with one camera.
Thanks
Mike

Break the bank???
If it costs one million and you will make one hundred million from it, the only problem you have is getting the one million.
This is not a joke. Everybody is in business to make money. Everything about the satisfaction of artistic creativity comes after the money.
Are not you guys in business to make money???

Hi Mike – I’m a TV news pro with a few suggestions for your cooking segments. For best results, with one camera, I’d recommend shooting wide-medium and tight shots of each step of the food preparation process, matched shots that can be edited together. That’s the mantra of professional videographers – wide – medium – tight. If you’re shooting it alone,that’s going to be pretty challenging because you won’t be able to shoot hands in the tighter shots doing the actions (since you’ll be holding the camera!). The footage will also require quite a bit of editing. If you get someone else to cook while you shoot or someone to shoot you cooking, it will be easier and perhaps not need much editing. They could just move around with the camera rolling. (just don’t put a lot of panning and zooming in the end product – makes people a little dizzy) Another possibility – you could use a mix of video cooking action, still shots of the food in various stages and perhaps text slides of instructions, a checklist or recipes, but this may be more work and less visually interesting. Hope this helps.

Very nice tip. I’m somewhat ‘secluded’ here in France and this would work well I think.

You could have asked Louis for a recorded audio on mp3 intro and outro and to ‘voice’ the questions which you might then have edited into the finished result so he’d be doing voice-over when the text comes up.

Super interesting information you provide in this post. Not only the how to create but also in the other movie.

I’m just starting blogging, make my money now with selling leads after getting adwords traffic. Going to follow your blog for more of this quality information. Definitely helping me out with how to create content for my blog!

Hi Gideon,
Thanks for putting up the second video for the behind the scenes. It answers a lot of the tech questions that run through your mind.

Three questions, please:
Were you hand holding a camera in the lobby of your apt?
If you did, it was very steady, no shaky hands.
What kind of camera was it?

When you are blogging a little more complicated material
would you put the text in the blog as well. Plus, some people
prefer text and some video. Keeping it short would help.
Comment, please on combining the two or not
for most posts?

Really like the how to been meaning to get back to video I played around with it a little bit last summer and really enjoyed it. I think next month I have to give this a try. I really like your end results with this one. I am actually looking to get my children involved with some of my projects. Making videos with them is a bonus they enjoy planning and acting.

Loved this post. Clever way to get that “expert interview” look and a nice change from seeing just a talking head addressing the camera. I hope showing both the “making of” video and finished one helps take away people’s fears. If you want to do your own videos, it isn’t all that difficult to master and have fun with.

Gideon,
Your information is always great, easy to use and implement-right-away ready. For those of us still getting our video “legs” I can suggest a free teleprompter. It helps me stay on track and has cut down on the number of times I have to do a recording to get a useable video.

You are doing a great job creating anticipation about your upcoming content. I can’t wait for what you have in store for us this year. See, it even works on me…and I am a shrink.

Anyway, I wanted to ask you this question about online video. How does having video content on your blog affect your search engine rankings? I mean search engines love words…written stuff that they can index. Video content is not scannable by search engine. So, wouldn’t having a video blog lower your chances to rank well in search engines? What’s your opinion?

About SEO… what’s really great about using YouTube and the tips I offer in http://KillerYouTubeStrategies.com is that you can get heaps of traffic from YouTube alone. So that means you don’t have to rely on SEO for your blog as much.

But in saying that, if you can transcribe all your vids, and add the text to your blog below the vids, then you cover both areas, which is what I’m planning to do shortly

This blog is still really in it’s infancy and I have some cool ideas for it coming up…

Thank you for this Gideon. It helps a lot to see what you are doing. I got slowed down because of fan noise in lap top — still trying to figure this one out.
Love what you do!
I’m going to read excerpts from my fiction I decided with as much atmosphere as possible.
Cheers!
Aline deWinter

I’m back for a second look and thought I’d leave a comment. I can’t find any links on this page. How strange, because obviously others are finding them! I’m using flock browser and coming up with nothing but text, although I’m assuming the bold text is meant to be the two links. Thought others may be having the same problem and just leaving, as I did at first.

Your gaze is slightly upward in the video. Here’s my guess why: The photo you are focusing on (that is on your fridge) is slightly above eye level and it looks to the viewer as though you are speaking to someone standing up!

To make the illusion truly work you have to be sensitive to such details 😉

Great video. I always open your emails……………must have a look at your copy!!

Really like this and alongside the become a blogger product I have and
the last product of yours……… killeryoutube strategies it is so helpful. I work with off line SMEs here in the UK and have just implemented one or two of your ideas. They think I am some video pro………….oops!!
What is great is a 3 minute video for a local business makes them stand out in the crowd.

Just a quick question. I don’t edit much at all. Just a little bit in the flip camera software. You mentioned final cut express?? is that in a particular programme Gideon?

Let me know when you start a higher level coaching programme!! I will be your first customer!

Once again you have given us some really Kool, actionable content using video. You have continued to share your ideas and tips that seem to make my Internet Life much easier by revealing very easy to follow steps that I can use immediately.

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Quick Question?
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I was wondering how to make my videos available to download for anyone interested in my Niche? I want them to be able to “right-click” and download the files from my server. Could you please give me a hand? I would really appreciate it.

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Recommendation for Gideon & Yaro
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As a Member of Become-A-Blogger, l have really benefited from both you and Yaro, and I am very pleased to recommend to anyone watching these videos to support your efforts by purchasing your products. Both You and Yaro are extremely knowledgeable, HONEST, and very easy to learn from.
Your FRESH approach to teaching and sharing with us is very timely, in this era of “so-called Internet Gurus” and it’s just what is needed…

Note*** They aren’t paying me to say this

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Continued Support
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Thanks again for your continual effort in building and supporting a community of like-minded, fun-loving Internet Marketing Professionals…

Like you, I use an Apple iMac G5 computer, although I’ve yet to use the built-in camera. Would you recommend using only a separate digital camera instead?

And may I suggest you hire a friend (preferably a good-looking professional woman with a velvet tongue) to ask the questions on-screen, with the camera switching between you and her, and both of you looking out of the screen to face the viewer. Like a TV newsreader interviewing someone in another place.

Gideon, very informative and thankyou for sharing.
I will go and check out Become a blogger.
You made it look easy and have been wanting to share some tips with the Mums and Dads about stress and fatigue children are feeling and parents are being stretched in every direction. Life is always easier when the pressure is off.

Yes, I have issues if I do not have it on a desk or table so I purchased a little lap table that I use that I can pull right up to my couch or bed and have an instant mini desk…and that has eliminated the heat issues.

Thanks for these 2 videos – great information in the interview video, and the behind the scenes one is very simple but very clever, and shows how you arrived at such a professional end-product.

As I was watching your interview, something clicked with me. I’ve heard Armand Morin say that in internet marketing you need to understand what is being done to you, and then implement it for yourself.

I’ve been on your list for a while now, and if I’m honest I haven’t been very diligent about reading your e-mails (I’m slapping my own wrist as I write this!). But now that I’ve watched you on video and saw the type of content you provide, now I trust you a lot more, and will read all your emails from now on.

Brought it across to me that I really need to get going with video.

Thanks again for your valuable information, and look forward to more videos from you (from the sounds of things you’re now addicted!)

Great tip thanks for taking the time and shareing it…
One question I do have is that everybody talks about
getting the video’s out but I only know of youtube that
you kept talking about… What other Video site are out
there and what is the number?
Have a great day and I love your work…
Reg B.

Gideon hi
what specific video camera please make and model is on the tripod and next to the light in your First video i.e. behind the scenes?

When you are pretending as if someone is there and your looking at the, m it would be nice to see you do a vid soon where several questions in a person’s voice is pre recorded on an mp3 player and simply inserted into the film clip ‘ editing software etc giving the illusion as if’ the person is actually there in the same room asking you etc, but of course its a pre recorded voice….

That camera is a Sony HDR-SR8 – great camera but the file sizes are HUGE – eats up computer space like crazy. I now use Flip Ultra HD for all my vids – but with a twist that I will be revealing very soon…

Blip.tv is great for streaming high quality videos, but they get a bit strange as soon as you have any kind of promotional message in your videos – they deleted one of my accounts a while ago without notice – was not nice.

Nowadays, YouTube offers the same quality for videos… and they get A LOT more traffic too. So, it’s a much better option now.

The problem is – “Is it legal”!!!
Some cities have codes that require you pay fees and get licensees to shoot within the city limits. They may also may require you get permission from the neighbors also

What a creative interesting idea. I has a client ask me about rewriting his articles, but he wanted several dozen rewrites, but he also wanted 2 dozen videos to go along with the original. We submitted all 15 originals and videos overnight to my list of article directories and all of the video sites, and his web traffic doubled from 560 to almost 1300 visitors by noon the next day, so now I am also promoting the video software

Brilliant videos and I feel really inspired to give video-ing a go because of you Gideon!! I can see this being really useful for my cycling readers – like ‘how to mend a puncture’ or ‘how to clip into cycling pedals with special cycle shoes’ something very daunting for many newbies. I need to listen to all your videos to get more tips on how you come across so professionally. I’m not a great public speaker (working on my weakness, joined a speaking club!), but I think by doing these videos will help a lot to get used to ‘speaking’ in front of a camera. You could do a post on getting over this ‘fear’ because I’ve heard a lot of bloggers feeling very nervous of doing videos. Anyway. Great stuff!!!

Great videos and explanations. I am really enjoying the information that you are sharing here, it really helps me with trying to learn more on creating video.

I am really struggling with quality not only of the videos on youtube but also with the audio, I cannot even seem to get good quality on my PC. I can do OK with a webcam attached to my PC but because of the nature of my blog most of my videos need to be outdoors.

I have a couple of questions for you:

Do you have any suggestions for a somewhat inexpensive camera for good quality?
Any suggestions on improving outdoor audio quality (like inexpensive wireless mic’s)?

Gideon – I’m spending all my time soaking up your content, so inspiring and innovative, awesome material and this is no exception.

One question, reading your posts I went out and bought a Flip Ultra HD, in one of the earlier comments you say:

“…I use a Flip Ultra HD camera… but I’ve stumbled upon a really nice little “tweak” that turns it into the best solution for online video I’ve found so far – will be revealing it in a few week’s time…”

PLLLEEEASE – can you tell me what that little tweak is?

The suspense is killing me!

This is my most inspiring site by a country mile at present, great work.

Just awesome content… and sincerely thanks for sharing. I notice that you work on Mac. What editing software are you using to quickly take your Video content and then blend in the questions… is that all done within Imovie?

Wow, thanks for putting this in your newsletter Gideon! I have watched this before but am actually about to do an interview. I was thinking of how you did this a few months ago and was going to search for it today. Well, you did the finding for me – thanks!

Hi Gedeon
Ihose two videos were very encouraging. I am a pastor oof a small church in East Belfast http://www.theupperroomchurchbelfast.com I designed the site
myself 65 years old. I know it is not very professional, Could be much better.
I did make a slide show using WMM. .And i was thinking of making a video on Bible. I understand what you have done , except for one thing ?
Your questions came up in Text . How did you do that and apply it to the main video?.
May every blessing come your way Gideon
Pastor Laurence

Great idea, has given me more ‘guts’ to start video blogging as it means my videos will have more focus!
Also, is it true that youtube transcribe each video for SEO purposes or something along those lines?

Yes, it’s true that YouTube now transcribes all (or at least most) English videos – as far as I know

By the sound of it, the automatic transcription does not actually get indexed. But when you upload the transcription manually, apparently it does get indexed. As to the weight that this holds for SEO, well that’s anybody’s guess!

Gideon – thanks for the good tip – so easy!
Do you know of a quick and easy way to transcript voice into text?
I’ve look around and I’ve not been able to find a quick and easy solution.
Thanks again for the great idea! I’m going to give that a go –

Basically, upload your video to YouTube and wait for the automatic captioning to take place. I’m pretty sure you can then download the caption file, and use that as the basis for your transcript. You may have to correct it though, cos YouTube’s voice recognition is not 100% there yet.

I do all the zooming in and out during the editing stage – pretty straight forward. Just make a “cut” in your video timeline where you want to zoom in, and a another “cut” where you want to zoom back out again. The simply zoom in for that portion of video using your editing program.

You’ll need something like Sony Vegas if you are on PC and ScreenFlow or Final Cut Express if you’re on Mac.

There is no doubt as to the importance to video on You Tube and on your blog. You certainly stress and demonstrate the importance and demonstrate how this has been successful for you. This is something I will need to learn. Your interview video was very clever. Thanks for all the tips.

Gideon,
I Loved this concept! Gives me Hope! I’ve recorded a few videos, but my camera is not very good. What camera did you use? What bottom line camera would be good to start with? Like for newbies that are struggling? I liked the “interview” concept a lot better than just sitting in front of the camera and talking and trying to remember everything. Thanks for the inspiration.

Beautiful! With just the title of your video, I am already sure that you will do great. It is really catchy. It is not like the generic-type ones that we all want to hear. This one will definitely make you click the thumbnail and make you watch till the end. I guess this one should be applied on your blogs, too.

Beautiful! With just the title of your video, I am already sure that you will do great. It is really catchy. It is not like the generic-type ones that we all want to hear. This one will definitely make you click the thumbnail and make you watch till the end. I guess this one should be applied on your blogs, too.

[…] Gideon Shalwick shows you a simple way for creating a video by yourself that looks like someone is personally interviewing you. It combines the power of video with the always popular “interview” mode. It’s a great way to connect with Fans on your Facebook Page. Enjoy and prosper. http://gideonshalwick.com/easy-video-content/ […]

[…] Gideon Shalwick shows you a simple way for creating a video by yourself that looks like someone is personally interviewing you. It combines the power of video with the always popular “interview” mode. It’s a great way to connect with Fans on your Facebook Page. Enjoy and prosper. http://gideonshalwick.com/easy-video-content/ […]

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